Football
The club established a men's football team in 1902. The team has been a part of the Danish Superliga championship since 1987, winning three championships in 1995, 1999 and in 2008.
After a good 2006/2007 season AaB qualified for the UEFA cup facing the Italian team U.C Sampdoria. AaB was heavily underdogs and no one really expected AaB to stand in the way for the 1992 UEFA Champions League runners up. After an impressive performance AaB got away with a 2-2 draw in Italy and after a heroic fight in Denmark ending 0-0, AaB advanced to the group play. They then faced Anderlecht, Getafe, Tottenham and Hapoel Tel Aviv. After drawing with Anderlecht they went to face Tottenham on White Hart Lane. AaB almost shook up the world by having a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half. Unfortunately the lack of experience in Europe got to them in the second half and they eventually lost the game 3-2.
AaB was eliminated after finishing 4th in the group but the international adventure was only at its beginning.
The 2007/2008 season ended with AaB 3rd championship since 1995 and after beating up FBK Kaunas AaB was ready play in the UEFA Champions League for the second time. Now they had to face the mighty Manchester United, Celtic and Villarreal. Again no one expected AaB to have a regular chance and most people were sure they would finish last with one or two points. But the team wanted it different and in the first game away against Celtic, AaB fought heroic and secured a 0-0 thanks to goalkeeper Karim Zaza saving a penalty in the opening of the match. AaB then lost 0-3 home against Manchester United before facing Villarreal away. AaB again fought heroic but in the end lost 6-3 after leading 0-1. Next match was home again against Villarreal and it was clear that the team wanted to revenge the defeat from last match. It didn’t go as planned for AaB but the team yet again fought the way back and ended up with a 2-2 draw. Next game was home against Celtic. Before the beginning of the tournament no one was expecting that AaB would still be in the run for the 3rd place but now they had to play Celtic for the ticket to the UEFA cup second round. First half ended 0-0 but in the beginning of the second half Celtic gained the lead. AaB now had to score twice in order to secure the ticket and such a result seemed miles away. Somehow the team was able to fight its way back and they ended up with a 2-1 victory scoring the winning goal just 4 minutes before the final whistle. AaB did the impossible and secured the ticket before facing Manchester United on the legendary Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford. As expected AaB was behind 1-0 early in the match but before half time the team had send out shockwaves through Europe by scoring twice and was now leading 1-2 at half time. United only managed to score once in the second half and AaB got away with an impressive 2-2.
Next stop was the UEFA Cup second round. Now facing Deportivo La Coruna AaB yet again was the underdog and besides from the supporters no one actually expected the team to advance. After the first match in Denmark AaB had proven everyone wrong by crushing Deportivo 3-0. Still most people expected Deportivo to do the same to AaB in Spain and Manchester City, who had to face the winner, almost booked the tickets for Spain before the second match. Deportivo started well and got a 1-0 lead but in the end of the first half AaB scored impressive 3 goals in just 5 minutes. The impossible was now possible; AaB was trough to the next round after a total win of 6-1.
Manchester City seemed like a mission impossible. The club was the richest club on the planet and players like Robinho made more money than all of the AaB squad did in total. After a 2-0 defeat at City of Manchester Stadium it would take a miracle to turn things around in Denmark. But Manchester City being 'Typical City' never turned up and allowed Aalborg to progress into extra time and penalties where that's the furthest they got. City finally dispatching them in the penalty shootout 4-3.
The 2010/2011 season was a catastrophe for Aab. Only in the last match of the season did AaB definitively avoid losing their status as a Superliga team.
Read more about this topic: Aalborg Boldspilklub
Famous quotes containing the word football:
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)